


The Pier

by spacedboy



Category: South Park
Genre: Friendship/Love, M/M, Slice of Life, kyle and stan are there for like. a scene, pinch of angst?, this is the longest thing i've ever written so far, y'all notice how much bunny i've written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 23:26:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21261359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacedboy/pseuds/spacedboy
Summary: Sitting and talking to each other, just like they used to when they were little.





	The Pier

**Author's Note:**

> i posted this on my laptop, so if it's formatted weirdly i'll edit it later

kenny and butters share a moment sitting on the stark's pond pier. (minus 15 words) 

""And remember to study for the math test we have on Monday students, it counts for at least 70 percent of your grade."

Kenny started spacing out as soon as he heard the word study. He sucked at math, maybe even worse than how the teacher sucked at doing his job. 

It was 3 o'clock, about five minutes before the dismissal bell rang. This was his least favorite period. The teacher would always command to see him after class at least once a week because of his behavior, overdue assignments, being late, existing. Basically any excuse to yell at someone, you name it.

While the middle aged man rambled on about decimals and fractions, Kenny popped in a cheap 5 dollar earbud from Dollar General trying to tune him out. He would've brought his (fake) Airpods to class but he accidentally left them in his locker. Then he sucked his arms into the inside of his parka and pulled out his phone from an inner pocket. Mr. Garrett absolutely hated when someone had an electronic device out in class, but luckily his jacket was big enough for him to use it undercover.

Kenny clicked onto a streaming app so he could listen to music while he waited, but a little icon said that he had a terrible Wi-Fi connection. Damn, how fucking horrible is your classroom if you have a shitty signal too? While he waited for his song to load, the bell rang all of a sudden. 

"Well, have a safe weekend everyone!" Mr. Garrett stopped his academic rant and tried to yell over the sea of students pouring into the hallway beside him. The blonde frantically shoved his phone back into his pocket and grabbed his bookbag that was hanging on the back of the chair.

"I expect to see you Monday evening, McCormick." Garrett organized a parent/teacher conference knowing damn well that his weren't going to show up. For the third time. That action alone made the boy's legs move fast enough to escape that hellish room in an blink of an eye.

~

"What're you guys doing this weekend?" Stan leaned on top of the locker across from Kenny's as he was putting in his combination. Kyle was standing at his locker, which was only about two lockers away from Ken's. 

"Dunno, haven't thought about it." Kenny opened his locker and put his math textbooks in his bookbag, along with his gym clothes that desperately needed to be washed. On the metal door you could see one of Karen's drawings of all of the McCormick siblings holding hands and smiling.

"I have a science test on Wednesday, so you know my mom's going to make me study all day." The redhead groaned to himself, "What are you doing, Stan?" 

"Mmh." He shrugged. "If I'm lucky I don't have anything to do. I could go over to your house if you want to tonight." The boy in the parka adjusted his earbuds and started to play a song as Stan and Kyle were conversing. He kept it at a low volume just in case they said something interesting.

Kyle gave him a little smile, nodding his head. "Of course dude." 

The group started walking as the two boys were talking about things. Stan was venting about his issues with Randy again, and Kyle was taking it all in and listening to each word trying to comfort him. Seeing as he should let them have their moment, he lagged behind. 

"You guys go on ahead, I gotta piss." He made up a white lie.

"Gross Kenny." Kyle turned around for a split second before looking at Stanley again.

After a couple of minutes, Kenny backtracked a few feet to men's restroom besides the shop class. The door opened with a elongated squeaky noise coming from the hinges, making his ears hurt. "Ah-!" He heard a surprised breath come from one of the stall doors, making him turn his head to the left. The blonde shrugged as he went towards the sink.

He turned the water on, splashing some on his face and wiping it off with his sleeve. God, he looked like death on legs. Freckles beginning to more like specks of dirt that wouldn't wash off, purple eye bags starting to form, and his hair looked so fucking matted. Nothing that some good sleep and water couldn't fix. 

Then Kenny heard sniffling and muffled hiccups come from right behind him. Now something had to be wrong. Then he heard the toilet flush and immediately turned back around on an impulse. It was Butters.

Butters walked up to the sink beside Kenny, his eyes itchy pink and his tufts of blonde hair tousled. He pumped his hand on the soap dispenser and was ready to get the hell out of there. "Oh! Um.. Hey there, Ken." The boy turned towards him and he gave him a small wave. He started to walk out of the door before Kenny put his hand on his shoulder gently.

"Butters, are you okay?" 

"W-what are you talking about? 'Course I am." The meek boy stuttered out, he was terrible at telling stories.

"Were you the one I heard crying in the stall earlier? What happened? Tell me the truth." Kenny started to get worried, as Butters started sniffling again and tearing up. The other blonde was overwhelmed by all the questions, and just shook his head to the side. "I don't wanna talk about it now." He sighed, wiping his eyes with his arm. "Maybe later?" 

"Alright Leo." Kenny pondered for a minute because speaking again. "Actually, do you have anywhere else to be right now? I know just the way to cheer you up."

"Y'know you don't have to do anything for me, Ken." 

"But I want to, so come on." He held his gloved hand out for him to take as he opened the bathroom door. "Do it for me?"

Butters looked away from him for a moment before taking his hand, he was a little embarrassed because of the whole thing. He tried his best to give him a smile. "Okay."

~

"Do you even know where you're going Kenny?" 

The two blondes were walking in the woods, Butters following the other's lead. At this point, he stopped crying and started to dry up the waterworks because he was getting tired of walking on the forest trail. It took about an hour to get there from school from the speed of their pace, and it looked like the sun was going down as well.

"Of course I do, did you forget the spot we had already?" Sticks and leaves crunched under Kenny's moving sneakers as he turned his head around. He kicked a rock into a nearby bush as they both continued walking the trail. "Aw come on, you of all people know I don't have the greatest memory." Leo bashfully said, he really couldn't remember if they had already did this before or not.

As they were walking, Butters took a moment to admire the area they were wandering around in. Thousands of trees growing around them, all the insects on the ground, the melody of birds chirping in their nests, the buzzing of locusts and ribbit of frogs, and the noise of branches being broken. All of the sight-seeing made him lag behind too.

"Kenny? Why did you tear that down-" 

"This doesn't this jog your memory? Like, at all?" 

The puzzle of branches that were now on the ground uncovered an entire place that wasn't that hard to access. It was a freshwater lake, with a wooden pier nailed into the ground hovering above the water. Both of their feet crunched on the leftover snow that was scattered around the edges of the water, and Kenny sat down at the end of it.

It was all coming back to him.

This is where he and Kenny would come to escape their burdens for a while in grade school. The place where they would vent and talk to each other for hours on end before the sunset. The place they made their own, together. It was the good old days back then, back when you could stay out past 10pm and nobody gave a shit, or when they fought against each other as Professor Chaos and Mysterion.

It's not like that anymore now. They're all in middle school and they've grown out of playing superheroes or Fighters of Zaaron anymore. Everyone's trying to grow up, maybe he should too. Maybe that's why Butters broke down in the bathroom a couple hours ago, because everything was piled on him all at once and it took was someone else to be his breaking point.

It didn't take Kenny long to realize that Leo knew by now- 

He himself could see it by the way his pupils dilated when he looked at the lake in front of both of them. The unhooded boy patted the spot right beside him, looking back at the other who was still standing. "You seem less tense. Maybe now you can talk to me about what happened earlier?" That gesture was just so inviting, basically like the physical version of ""Hey dude, I'm here for you, I'll be your shoulder to cry on."

Butters sat nest to Kenny, putting his gaze down on the blue mirror beneath them. When he looked into his own eyes, he saw that horrible scar from a couple years ago materialized. A scar that when the two of them were playing a game, that Ken gave him personally. The blonde dragged his fingertips down lightly from under his left eye and felt a dull pain. As the water rippled underneath his feet, the cut disappeared.

"I've been havin' a really bad week Kenny. We took these really important tests for this semester last month, and the teacher won't tell me what I made. Can't open my locker without somebody tryin' to shove me in it, and even if I can it takes a long time to do it. I have a test on Friday on something I don't know shit about and our teacher can't even do their job right!" 

Kenny kept listening to Butters' soliloquy and nodded his head, telling him to keep going.

"My favorite reading teacher is out sick with a cold, Cartman keeps stealing my lunch, and my dad is going to fucking kill me if I don't get my grades up by Christmas break." Cooling down, Butters let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in.

"Before the bell for us to leave rang, I went to my locker early to get a headstart on opening it. When I did, someone drew dicks on the door and called me a whiny little bitch. I went to the bathroom to get some wipes to clean it, but they wrote it on the mirror too." He started to tear up again as he wiped his face on his arm.

"I'm sorry that you saw that. I just couldn't handle the stress anymore so I just.. broke down crying. And now look at me, crying just of something stupid. That person was right about me, I am just a whiny bitch." A salty tear dropped to the lake under them as Butters looked up at the other blonde.

"I've been rambling this entire time, haven't I? Gosh.." 

Kenny scooted closer to him and wrapped his left arm around his side. "No, no, no. You don't have to say sorry to me Leo. You shouldn't have to apologize for having emotions like every other human being. You're not a whiny bitch." He turned his head back foward to look at the water. 

"And anyone who disagrees can eat my fucking ass."

Butters smiled a little bit as he looked at the lake with Kenny. They had been out here for a couple of hours ever since they walked that trail, and the sun was finally beginning to set. Instead of the normal blue, the water was a beautiful peach pink with hints of yellow from the reflection.

"Hey, Kenny. Do you ever get the feeling that you want to go back in time, but at the same time you never want this one moment to ever end?" 

"Yeah, all the time." Kenny pulled his arm away from Butters' side as he played with the lake water with his other ungloved hand. "Especially this one." The dirty blonde placed his hand onto the other's as he looked into Leo's sky blue eyes. 

"I swear one day me and you are gonna get out of this town, and you can call that a promise." 

Butters intertwined their fingers together as he exhaled. He could see Kenny's cheeks turn slightly pink, or maybe it was just the sunset messing up his vision. 

As Ken had his eyes closed, he took the chance to look at him properly for once. His freckles were like pale constellations of stars at night, his hair as yellow as the sun but dirtier, and the sight of the smile on his face was sweeter than any candy on Earth.

"You don't know just how grateful I am for you.."

Before he could even think, his lips were placed gently on top of Kenny's cheek. Maybe it was just the heat of the moment or something he'd be planning to do sooner, but regardless he kissed him. Immediately afterwards though, the increasingly flustered boy got onto his feet and started to walk away from the pier as he was too embarrassed to look back.

"It's getting late and I think I just heard my mom calling me, bye Kenny!!" Butters yelled out, but he couldn't think straight so it came out like one word. 

Kenny held his cheek onto his hand and grinned to himself before turning around and waving at him with a happy face. 

"See you later, butterstotch."

**Author's Note:**

> happy halloween this was a request that took me too long to do


End file.
